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A 22-year-old Verizon promise to bring fiber Internet or "comparable technology" to its entire service area in Pennsylvania has instead left more than two million homes with nothing but slower DSL or wireless service.

In 1993, Verizon predecessor Bell signed an agreement with state regulators in which it committed "to deploy the technologies necessary to provide universal broadband availability in 2015. In order to meet this commitment, Bell plans to deploy a broadband network using fiber optics or other comparable technology that is capable of supporting services requiring bandwidth of at least 45 megabits per second or its equivalent."

Further Reading

Further Reading

In exchange, Verizon was allowed to charge higher phone rates. (More specifically, the company was freed from the restrictions of rate-of-return regulation.) But today, at least 2.1 million Pennsylvania households in Verizon's phone territory do not have access to the company's fiber network.

"The fiber network is available to approximately 2.1 million premises (which includes residential and business). The vast majority of the remaining households have either DSL or wireless LTE broadband options available to them," a Verizon spokesperson told Ars this week.

Overall, there are about "4.2 million residential households in Verizon’s service areas in Pennsylvania," the company also said. That leaves at least 2.1 million homes without fiber access. The real figure is likely more than that since the number of premises where fiber is available includes both homes and businesses. Verizon would not provide more exact numbers.

Some of the customers without fiber are likely in former GTE territory controlled by Verizon; this area would not be subject to Bell's fiber commitment.

Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick, who has been tracking telco company promises for years, wrote in his latest Huffington Post article that Verizon has gotten away with not deploying fiber throughout the state because officials have relaxed the requirements over the years, giving up on the "45 megabits per second" minimum and allowing Verizon to meet the obligation with wireless instead of fiber or other wireline technology.

In the non-fiber portions of Verizon's territory, Verizon's website states that DSL "High Speed Internet" is available to "more than 1 million" households in Pennsylvania. Verizon's website labels anything that's at least 0.5Mbps as "High Speed Internet," though its DSL download speeds can be as high as 15Mbps. Anything that's at least 1.1Mbps is "High Speed Internet Enhanced" in Verizon's lingo, even though that's just a fraction of the nation's 25Mbps broadband definition.

The "more than 1 million" figure appears to be a few years old, and Verizon told us it only includes areas with speeds on the high end of the DSL range. But the company would not provide an exact figure for total DSL availability in Pennsylvania.

As for wireless, Verizon's average LTE download speeds are 5 to 12Mbps. While Verizon offers a residential LTE service for people who can't get wired broadband, the speeds and data caps make it a poor substitute for fiber Internet.

Verizon says it has met all its obligations, though.

"Verizon’s commitments have always been to make broadband service (as defined in the Chapter 30 statute) universally available to its urban, suburban and rural customers by year-end 2015, and Verizon is on track to meet those commitments," Verizon told Ars, referring to a state law that allowed telcos to request relief from rate regulation. "To date, broadband is available to nearly 95 percent of Verizon North’s [the former GTE territory] customers and to approximately 99 percent of Verizon Pennsylvania’s customers. Chapter 30 is technology-neutral, allowing broadband availability to be provided through any technology or combination of technologies capable of meeting the statutory bandwidth requirements. Verizon has used a variety of technologies (e.g. DSL, fiber and wireless LTE) to meet its obligations."

When Verizon signed its agreement in 1993, Pennsylvania defined broadband as 1.544Mbps downstream and 128kbps upstream. Even though Verizon's commitment specifically required 45Mbps by 2015, Verizon claimed in the year 2000 that it could satisfy the requirement by meeting the older 1.544Mbps/128kbps standard.

State utility officials initially resisted the change, ordering Verizon in 2002 to "provide plans and objectives to deploy broadband capability of at least 45Mbps upstream and downstream to the customer's premises and, in the interim, expanded DSL deployment at speeds of at least 1.544Mbps." Verizon won out in the end.

In New Jersey last year, Verizon convinced the state to let it meet similar broadband obligations with wireless instead of wireline Internet service.

Union: Verizon letting landlines fall into disrepair

Separately, a union of telecommunications workers today accused Verizon of failing to maintain landlines throughout the Northeast.

"As a public utility in these states, Verizon has a duty to maintain services for all customers. But we've seen how the company abandons users, particularly on legacy networks, and customers across the country have noticed their service quality is plummeting," Communications Workers of America (CWA) official Dennis Trainor said in the group's announcement that it has filed Freedom of Information Act [FoIA] requests to obtain "details regarding repair, maintenance, and installation of Verizon landline services" across the region. The records requests were filed in New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

Further Reading

"The public deserves to know about Verizon's failure to serve its customers and maintain a working telephone system—and these FoIAs aim to do just that," Trainor said.

"Rates for basic telephone service have increased in recent years, even as Verizon has refused to expand their broadband services into many cities and rural communities, and service quality has greatly deteriorated," the CWA also wrote. "Verizon's declining service quality especially impacts customers who cannot afford more advanced cable services, or who live in areas with few options for cable or wireless services."

The union is also seeking information on Verizon pitching wireless "Voice Link" home phones as a substitute for copper landlines.

Verizon told Ars that "absurd union claims are very typical at this point in the bargaining cycle," noting that bargaining for a new union contract begins in two weeks.

Verizon also issued this statement:

We hear all sorts of meaningless rhetoric and hyperbole from the unions at the start of each bargaining cycle and this time is no exception.

The reality is that Verizon continues to invest billions of dollars in its wireline networks each year. To claim that we’ve abandoned or have neglected our copper network is total nonsense.

Millions of our customers effectively communicate using voice or data services delivered over our copper network. When an issue arises, we work quickly to mitigate it.

Keep in mind, we have about 10.4 million voice connections that use our fiber or copper networks. There are about 13,000 Verizon Voice Link customers, almost entirely by choice. And those customers who use the service overwhelmingly tell us they like it. For the union to assert that Verizon has abandoned our network—and the customers who use it—is ludicrous. Verizon last year invested $5.8 billion in its wireline networks (both copper and fiber) and there’s no indication that’s about to change. At the start of each bargaining cycle, it’s customary for the unions to make all sorts of dysfunctional allegations. Unfortunately, it seems this upcoming bargaining cycle will bring more of the same.

Promoted Comments

I'm in Scranton, PA, which is in the Northeastern part of the state. It's the 6th largest city in the state. We used to have Bell Atlantic, so I assume we'd be included in the parts of the state covered by their old "promise."

About 5 years ago, the best Verizon could give me was 3Mbps DSL. Nowadays you can't even order DSL from them here, they only offer wireless LTE. $90/mo would get me 20GB of data at "average speeds of 5-12 Mbps download and 2-5 Mbps upload." That might last me almost half a week.

Luckily, Comcast is pretty good up here, so I don't lack for broadband.